Chapter 11

Chapter 11- Aftermath

My walk to the offices was halfway between a stalk and a mince.  I was nervous about meeting with Compton, and furious at his witch of a maker.  Hundreds of years on planet earth, and she wasted them being cruel.  I shoved the door to the main office open a little harder than expected, and it bounced furiously off the wall.  I stopped and stared down at my overly strong hands, then further down at the shoes Lorena had mocked.

“So how’d things go with the wicked witch of the west?” Pam drawled snarkily.

I blinked, still looking down at my shoes, then looked back up into Pam’s expectant face.

“She sneered at my shoes and suggested I ask Godric for a raise.”

“And you’ve got some boiling blood for the insult.”

“Oh yeah.”

Pam stood on a charming laugh and offered me a hand.  We shook with solemn faces over her desk, though I was trying desperately not to quirk my lips.

“Welcome to the Lorena Krasiki hate club.  President and treasurer have already been filled, but we have a nice opening for secretary.”

“I’ll take it,” I blurted on a laugh, and she joined me in a chuckle session that had red rings circling her eyes.

“Where’s Eric?” I asked once the giggles had faded to chuckles.  I couldn’t decide if I was pissed at him for deserting me or happy that he had enough faith in me to let me handle the power hell couple alone.

Pam waved an absently bejeweled hand.

“Oh, he’s in his office.”

“Right,” I said as I turned for the hall leading back to the executive offices.  By luck, or as I suspected, deliberate plotting, I had an office directly next to Eric’s and directly across from Godric’s.  Isabella’s sat on the other side, but I had yet to meet her.  She always seemed to be flying about the country on assignment.  I’d yet to see Godric’s psychic again, either, but she seemed the sort to pop up when the mood struck her.

I was just about to knock on Eric’s door when I heard his husky voice say, “Come in, Sookie.”

I opened the door and dropped my jaw.

Eric was shirtless and facing a closet in the corner as he rummaged through a bar full of clothes.  I watched wide-eyed at the muscles rippling over his back and cording his beautiful forearms.  Whatever frustrations I had felt a minute ago had faded into a sexual fantasy so overwhelming that I just stood there until the door bumped my foot.  I jumped like a scared little rabbit and let it swing closed behind us, just me and my little lust crush inside an office that suddenly seemed far too small for its gigantic size.

“What can I do for you Miss Stackhouse?”

Take me on your desk and pound me into pieces.

I made a little sound in my throat as he lifted a black shimmering tee-shirt and slid it on over his shoulders, settling it over his torso with a flash of wrist in motion.

He turned to look at me, and I found my heat matched perfectly in his bottomless blue eyes.

“I take it you approve?” he murmured softly as he walked carefully towards me.  Still, I couldn’t speak.  There were mere inches between us as he stopped, and his expression told me it was my turn to make the moves.

Could I do this?  Could I touch this magickal creature and still keep my heart intact?  But the questions seemed dim, fading quickly as his eyes swallowed me up.

“Sookie-“

“Shhhh…” I managed as I closed the slight distance between us.  I swallowed hard as I slid my hands under his shirt and traced them up his flat belly.  I finally came to a stop at his shoulders, kneading the pale muscled flesh with my hands.

“I should know better than this,” I whispered as I slid my hands around to his cool back.  I lifted my eyes and stared into the emotions I felt there.  Caution laced with the softest desire I could never imagine.  I pushed up on my toes, shoving thoughts of my dead parents out of my head.

When our lips met, it was as tender as flowering shoots rising for spring, and just as lovely.  He let me lead, but when I groaned into his mouth his hand hand slide up the back of my neck and massaged me closer to close the distance.  I could feel him rock hard pressed into my belly, his hand in my hair and the other quite nearly encircling my waist.

I jerked myself back so suddenly I would have tripped if not for his grip.  I gulped down huge lungfuls of air through my swollen lips.  Eric was both frustrated and pleased, and his eyes glowed with lust.

“One of these days, Miss Stackhouse.”

“Yes,” I managed as I licked his taste off my damp lips.  “I suspect so.”

His lips quirked in good humor.

“You needn’t sound so gloomy about it.  The places I will take you to.”  His big hand raised up and lovingly cupped my cheek.

“I have some pretty bad memories, Eric,” I told him earnestly.

“Yes, I know.  I was the one who performed a background check on you.”

I went pale at that, and Eric took my arm and led me to a chair.  I sat down numbly with Eric crouching at my feet.  He stared up at me with the gentlest expression, rubbing soft circles inside my palm with his thumb.

“Standard procedure, dear one.”

“So you know about…” I swallowed hard over the lump in my throat.  “My parents?” I finally managed.

“All that and more.”

I glanced down, rapidly blinking at the growing moisture in my eyes.  I could feel the darkness rising inside my mind, pressing against my kiss swollen lips with vicious determination.  Through the blood bond, I could feel Eric sending me waves of comfort.

“I’m not okay over it, Eric.  There’re days I wonder if I’ll ever be.”

I lifted my head and looked into a glowing face of compassion.

“Before you know, it didn’t matter.  I was handicapped goods.  But now there’s you, and the possibility…”  I swallowed again, and Eric took the pause to finish my thought.

“The possibility of us.”

“Yes,” I whispered desperately.  “But every time I think I’m strong enough to meet you halfway, the images come creeping in my head.”

Flash!  Blood splattered over the peach lampshade.  Flash!  The smoky burning scent of a fired pistol.  Flash!  The lifeless jelling eyes of my parent’s corpses.  I shivered against the violence, felt my blood chill and my mind slipping into darkness.

Eric could feel me losing it.  He lifted me effortlessly in his arms and tucked me into his lap, pressing a cool kiss to my forehead.  His voice was emoteless as he spoke, but I could feel the agony and rage cocktail spinning through the bond.

“My moder and fader, they were murdered before my very eyes.”

“Moder and fader?” I asked softly.

“My parents, and my baby sister.  I was too weak to fight them off.  I just stood there, watching as the werewolf stole my fader’s crown and delivered it to his master.”

“Oh Eric, I’m so sorry,” I said, burying my face into his beautiful shoulder.

“Things have changed now.  I am all but master of Wilmington standing at Godric’s side.  No crime goes unpunished here.”

I could feel his determination, but no joy for the power.  It took me a long way towards understanding him.  Eric was in charge, but it was ruthlessness he offered in most circumstances, not cruelty.  Justice reigned in this fanged court that I had joined, and it made me all the happier to be a part of it.

I lifted my head and found myself staring directly into his sorrowful blue eyes.

“What are you showing me here, Eric?” I asked softly.

“What I show to a rare few.”

“Why?”

“You are my bonded, whether you have come to terms with it or not.”

“Eric-“ I began to protest, but he cut me gently off.

“I am a patient creature.  I know better than anyone that nightmares cannot be rushed to silence.  When it happens, it will be the right moment for both of us.”

He kissed me again, a feathery brush, and I sighed and leaned further into him.  We were comfortably silent for awhile before I broke the silence.

“You shouldn’t have left me alone with those piranhas,” I muttered into his shirt.

“I had little doubt you could handle yourself.”

“I almost punched Lorena.”

I could feel the rumble of his chest as he began laughing.  It escalated until my whole head shook against his shoulder.  I pulled back then and glared at him.

“I’m serious, Eric.”

The chuckles had to settle before he managed to speak.

“Dare I ask over what?”

“She mocked my shoes and told me to ask Godric for a raise.”

“Fuck Lorena,” he all but snarled.  “I wouldn’t change a hair on your head.”

I could feel the giddiness blowing up my face into a cheek-wide smile.

“I could afford them, but-“

“You are a spendthrift.”

I scowled at that.

“That’s a terrible way of saying it.”

Eric merely shrugged.

“I see no harm in collecting money rather than wasting it.”

“Exactly,” I agreed on a determined nod.  “Plus, I just paid for my Gran’s new roof.”

“That was very kind of you,” he said, leaning in for a pop of a kiss.  I grinned back at him.

“And Compton?  I’m thinking it’s not just advice he’s seeking for his script.”

Eric went very still, and his voice came out dangerously quiet.

“Is it going to be a problem?” he asked softly.  I reached through the blood bond and found the jealousy wrapped tightly under layer upon layer of control.  I searched his eyes and found them as falsely neutral.  I smiled softly at him and shook my head.

“I’ve got more’n a few years experience dealing with lusty morons.  I’ll be just fine.”

“Alright,” he said, but I could feel the tension pushed further down into the bond.  Lordy, I hoped he wasn’t going to go all commando on our top screen writer.

“Plus, I’d have to be certifiable to even consider him as a suitor given his relationship with Lorena.  That one’s sure enough to give me nightmares as it is.”

“If either of them offer you any difficulties, you are to report to me immediately.”

“I’ll remember that.”  I kissed him again, and this time he turned it hungry.  His fangs popped, but he managed to avoid nicking me by some magick experience.  I buried my hands deeply in his blond hair, massaging his scalp as I massaged his tongue with my own.

“Are you very hungry then?” I whispered as he buried his face in my chest and took a deep, unnecessary breath.

“It can wait,” he managed huskily.

“It doesn’t have to.”

I kneeled on his knees, catching my long hair and pushing it off to one side.  I leaned into him, pressing the flesh of my neck closer and closer to his mouth.  One hand reached out to steady my waist, the other reaching up to gently force our eyes to contact.

“You are sure?”

“Positive,” I said firmly, and his blue eyes glowed with fierce desire.  His big hand came up and buried itself in my hair, pulling me closer.  He lowered his lips to my throat and tentatively scrapped with the tips of his fangs.

“Do it,” I insisted breathlessly, and in he sank, pain and pleasure ripping through my blood like a wildfire.  It was all I could do to hold onto his shoulders, nails biting in, Eric’s greedy gentle sucking filling my ears.  I gasped when his spare hand forced me down on his erection, rubbing myself against the hardness until my body exploded in invisible flames.  Eric pulled back, tongue licking a bloody path up my face.  I pulled away and stared at him, wide-eyed and breathless.  He kept the fierce eye contact, but lifted his wrist and bit down with a crisp popping sound.

“Drink,” he offered, raising his bloody wrist to my mouth.  I latched on like a baby suckling as the orgasmic shivers still ran through me, and Eric groaned and shuddered himself out against my belly.

I released his wrist reluctantly, realizing I could feel the blood bond even stronger now.  I could feel how ecstatic Eric was as he licked my throat to clean skin.  There was a long moment of silence before I worked up the courage to speak.

“Lordy, you ought to be outlawed for overwhelming ladies with lust.”

He barked in laughter and lifted his head up from my throat.

“You taste like sunshine,” he said softly, eyes gently tracing my face.

“I sunbath a lot,” I agreed as I slid limply against his shoulder.  His hand came up and ran down the length of my hair, and I shivered again in aftershock.

“No, it is not that…  It’s your blood itself.  Liquid sunshine.”

I pushed back and gave him a happily daft smile.

“Well, I am a quarter fairy.”

“I’m aware, Miss Stackhouse,” he said, pressing a gentle kiss to my forehead.  “Thank you for the gift.”

“Thank you for understanding with kindness.”

“You deserve all that and more, my Sookie.  It’ll come with time,” he added as I began shaking my head.  He pulled me in closer.

“It will come.”

I held onto him tightly, and prayed with all my heart that he was right.